by David Wong
The airship jolted and Zoey once again watched the city fall away around her. The waitress emerged. She was now only partially nude, dressed as Eve, wearing a few leaves and a real damned snake that rested on her shoulders. She brought out a pair of delicately plated dishes of what looked like some kind of sliced pork with a side of glazed chunks of something or other. Zoey barely glanced at it.
“I know you haven’t had dinner,” said Chobb. “I’m told this should be to your liking. My chef, he can work miracles. Any raw material can become perfection in his kitchen.”
“So, kidnapping my mother, was that Dirk Vikerness’s idea, too? And trying to kill me down there just half an hour ago?”
“We’ll discuss your mother in a moment. As for his actions tonight, I assure you that I had not been in contact with Dirk since his injury, out at the storage lockers. And even then, he was largely working on his own. His behavior had, unfortunately, become erratic. He was involved in that radical men’s group that I never fully understood but regrettably had associated myself with. I will take responsibility for that as well. Sometimes you align yourself with parties with whom you believe you share a common goal, only to find that all along, you were the tail and they were the dog.”
“I’ll keep that in mind if I’m ever tempted to align myself with a murder cult in order to further my own selfish ends.”
“Yes, surely you will never find yourself in such a situation.”
Chobb sliced off a piece of the meat.
“Is that enough discussion for you to bring my mother out?”
“I assume you know that this radical group I speak of is also the reason you’re here. Or perhaps you didn’t know that? And I don’t mean here at this table, but rather here in this city. My association with them goes back some years. I’m not proud of that.”
“That’s fascinating. See, the thing is, that hate group kind of isn’t anything without your cash and backing. So I’d say it’s entirely your fault.”
Only then did it sink in for Zoey what exactly Titus had just said. About how this group, and by extension, Titus Chobb, was responsible for the current state of her life.
“Wait. Did you just confess to killing my father?”
“I will acknowledge that I set the wheels in motion. I provided financial backing and other resources to men I believed could help contain your father and his madness.” Chobb studied her expression. “How do you feel about that?”
Zoey actually wasn’t sure.
“My relationship with my father was … complicated.”
“All relationships with fathers are.”
“Does Will know you were behind that? If so, I’m not sure why you’re still alive.”
“We’ll discuss that in a moment. But I want to say that I have barely known a moment’s peace ever since I heard rumors of a grossly irresponsible technology that was only a modest investment away from becoming reality. Your father brought Raiden to life, putting the power to change human evolution in the hands of people who neither understood its implications nor were capable of understanding them. Your father built this city, and for that we are all in his debt. But in the end, he was overtaken by a deranged fantasy. If it had been up to me, none of it would have happened, including his tragic end. He just could not leave well enough alone. Both then and now, I went looking for allies as an act of desperation.”
“See, you’re trying to sell me on you being this remorseful bystander in all this. But I know where you came from and I know what you are. You’re a butcher. Wait, what am I talking about? A butcher actually gets his hands in the guts, does the work himself. You’re the butcher’s supervisor or something. I don’t know. I’m tired.”
“My guards have saved more lives than all of this city’s doctors put together. Vanguard of Peace security staff have stopped twenty-three sexual assaults tonight. Meanwhile, due to your father’s actions, the clock was ticking until the day one of his monstrosities would come and kick in my door. I still have nightmares about it.”
“Okay, and twelve hours ago I talked to Megaboss Alonzo, who has nightmares about your armed thugs terrorizing his people.”
“If my men do that, it’s only because they are familiar with Alonzo’s reputation. I heard he once ate a human heart.”
“Look at you, operating with bad intentions because you assume everyone else is doing the same. It’s like every awful person I’ve ever known works from the same playbook.”
“It’s just how the world works. In conflict, the side that takes the initiative wins. If you project that conflict is inevitable, the smart thing to do, the responsible thing to do, is to move immediately, end it before it begins. The longer you wait, the more both sides prepare and dig in, the worse the devastation will be.”
“So you kill people in real life based on horrors that occur in your imagination. Got it.”
Chobb shook his head, sighed, and took another bite.
Another man in a suit with a gun stepped out of the bar area—so that made nine guards—and said, “An aircraft is moving to intercept us.”
“Thank you, Antonio.” Chobb seemed unsurprised by the news. To Zoey, he said, “I assume that’s Will Blackwater and his team in that aircraft. What is it you think he’s going to try to do here?”
“What would you try to do, in his situation?”
“Win.”
“And what do you think that looks like?”
“Attempt a violent extraction, even if it means everyone on board this craft is killed in the process, including you. If he negotiates terms, he establishes that taking you hostage is an effective way to extract concessions. He’d just be assuring that it happens again.”
“Yeah, I think I remember him saying something about that. But you weren’t going to do that to us when we had Marti on board. You weren’t going to risk his safety just to look strong.”
Chobb gave her a look as if to say, “I wasn’t?”
Zoey reached into her pocket and brought out the object. It just looked like a little silver button, like it had fallen off someone’s shirt. She kept it between her finger and thumb, under the table.
“So what was the point of luring me up here, then?” she asked.
“My goal is to try to talk some sense into you. Maybe we start by agreeing that we are both here because we failed to contain those we depended on to do certain labors on our behalf.” He gestured to the plate. “Please, you must be hungry. If you’re worried it’s poison, we can trade plates.”
Will had a rule about eating in these situations but Zoey was too exhausted to remember what it was. She was pretty sure you were supposed to eat, to show you weren’t intimidated and to signal that you were there in peace and good faith. Also, she was starving.
She took a small bite of the braised pork or whatever it was, eating with her right hand while keeping the left under the table, with the button. The meat was, of course, excellent. Werner Wolff’s reputation was of a man who could feed you your own shoe and leave you wanting to lick the plate.
Titus watched her. “I heard you’re thinking about cashing out. Leaving town.”
“What, did my mom tell you that?”
He gestured to the meat. “Do you like it?”
“It’s pretty good.” She took another bite. “What is it?”
“Surprised you don’t recognize it. Based on what I’ve heard.”
“I’m torn on the decision. On one hand, I hate this place because it’s full of people like you. On the other hand, leaving means this place then falls into the hands of people like you and for some reason that also bothers me. I’m thinking I need to stay here and keep you in check.”
“I see.”
Zoey sliced off another bite of the meat. “I’m not going any further with this until you tell me where my mother is.”
Titus put down his fork and laced his fingers, resting his elbows on the table.
“I’d seen your mother every day, for months. Did you know that? Though I didn�
�t know that’s who she was at the time. There is a cafe, in the lobby of Freya’s. I stopped there every morning on the way up to my office. We always wound up in line together. She was outgoing, full of curiosity. Reminded me of Freya.”
“She reminded you of … the building back there?”
“Freya’s Palace was designed, built, and run by my wife, prior to her death. So then there she was, your mother, today at the parade. She came and found me at my spot along the route, came to plead on your behalf. And it all seemed very convenient. Very orchestrated. Like someone knew my weakness and went right for it.”
“What did you do to her?”
Zoey put her fork down.
She looked closely at the meat on her plate.
“Zoey, there is a … cloud … that hangs over me. I can’t explain it to you, because you haven’t yet been down this road. All I can say is that something will happen in your life that will slice right through it, an inflamed wound separating everything that comes after from all that came before. The end of a career, the loss of a limb, the death of a spouse. And I’m not talking about some breakup in college, before you’ve even figured out who you are yet. I mean something that will hit you after you’ve come to believe the world is solid under your feet, thought you knew the shape of your life. It’s like if one morning the sun just didn’t rise. For me, it was Freya dying of cancer. Not just the death, but the original misdiagnosis, the year of fighting, the periods of false hope, the mistakes I made that may have cost both of us everything. After that day, after that red gash across the timeline, you look at your old photos and see a stranger looking back. Your mind gets pulled in so many directions that it loses its shape, becomes something unrecognizable. Monstrous.”
Zoey couldn’t speak. The tiny button was being squeezed between her thumb and index finger so tightly she feared she’d shatter it.
“Anyway,” continued Chobb, picking up his fork to sever another bite. “Your mother made an impassioned appeal. And I listened. I offered to have her for dinner and she said yes. That’s why we’re having her for dinner tonight.”
Chobb stuffed the hunk of meat into his mouth.
42
Zoey watched the man’s jaw work.
In a low voice she said, “Where. Is. She.”
Chobb set his fork down on the plate. Chewing. Staring directly at her with an expression that Zoey could not read.
He raised his voice. “Melinda?”
There was some stirring from the bar behind her. Zoey turned in time to see her mother emerge, some kind of colorful cocktail in her hand. Zoey would have stood if she could.
“Mom! Are you hurt?”
“No! You are looking a little rough, though.”
Her mother sashayed over. From her walk, Zoey judged her drunkenness level at around a six. She took a seat, but not next to Zoey. She sat next to Chobb.
“I see you’re eating,” she said breezily. “Are we all friends now? Have you guys resolved your differences? I kept wanting to eat street food, these carts came by selling kati rolls—have you had one of those, they’re like Indian burritos—and they smelled soooo good but Titus was like, no way, we’re going up in the sky and having my man cook for us!”
Zoey looked at Chobb. “I don’t get what’s going on here at all, but are we free to leave?”
He said, “Well, it’s a long way down if you walk out now.”
Her mother laughed and gently slapped Chobb on the shoulder and Zoey felt like she was losing her goddamned mind.
“I don’t want to leave yet,” said her mother. “I haven’t eaten! It’s not even two in the morning, there are parties down there that don’t even start until the parade ends.” To Chobb, she said, “Excuse her, she’s from a small town. Our stoplights used to start blinking at nine P.M.”
“Mom, I love you, but this could all end in a big stupid helicopter battle that turns us into flaming chunks raining from the sky. And the drunk crowd down there will still think it’s all part of somebody’s float.”
Her mother was touching Titus Chobb’s arm.
Zoey said, “Okay, what exactly is going on here?”
“I will admit I was skeptical of her motives,” said Chobb. “But I know people. And your mother is a … special woman. I’ve never felt a connection to someone so quickly. An intimacy. Melinda has … awakened some things in me. Things I didn’t know were dead. I haven’t had an evening like this since, well, maybe never.”
Zoey stared daggers at her mother. “Mom? What did you do?”
“Now that’s none of your business, little lady!”
“Okay,” Zoey said, rubbing her temple like she was trying to massage away what she’d just learned. “My people are coming. Titus here thinks it’s possible nobody survives that encounter.”
“Only if we can’t come to an agreement.” Chobb raised his voice and said, “Antonio, what is the status of our visitors?”
Antonio poked his head out of the bar and said, “They have been forced to land by two of our air units. They’ll be apprehended soon.”
Chobb said, “Well, I would say that worked out for everyone.”
The mostly naked server brought a third plate, for Zoey’s mother.
She sniffed the food, then glanced back at the woman and said, “Can you not afford uniforms for your waitresses?” She nudged Chobb playfully with an elbow. “I bet she’s cold!”
Chobb looked embarrassed. “The girls work for Chef Wolff, a holdover from before I bought the place, he insisted they stay. He says it’s all part of the food’s presentation, the ‘sensuality of anticipation’ or some nonsense.”
Zoey said, “Her name is Dasha, she was on his Blink stream. Be sure to leave her a tip, she has assholes for bosses.”
Her mother said, “Eat your dinner.”
In order to buy her a few seconds to think more than anything, Zoey took a bite of her side dish, which turned out to be some kind of fancy baked apples.
“So,” said Zoey, “I will discuss this all with my mother later, at length, but the last time I was on the ground, I watched everyone who works for you come flying toward me like a swarm of locusts.”
“To retrieve my son, yes.”
“And now you have him back safe and sound. Unless that creepy funeral guy sold him for parts.”
Chobb didn’t reply.
Zoey said, “So here is the situation. Regardless of what your guy just said, you and I both know that at some point in the very near future, probably before we’ve all finished eating, my people are going to be here. In this room. Somehow, they’ll be here. If they are able to get me and my mom out of here alive, what will you do in response?”
“If they are successful at extracting you, it will mean I am dead.”
Zoey’s mother said “Titus…” in a tone like she was scolding him for being melodramatic.
“Okay. Let’s say your people stop them, then. They never show up. We land, you let me and my mother go. Then what?”
“Then I am also dead. Will Blackwater will come for me. And he will not stop.”
“What if I give you my guarantee that I won’t let him do that?”
“You just admitted a minute ago that you had no control over him.”
“Actually, he did what he did because he thought he was acting in our interests. And he knows he can’t come after you without starting a war. You have an army, you have people who’ll take up your banner after you’re gone, to retaliate.”
“And yet, he will do it anyway. If I let you just walk out of here, it will be war. The city will burn. If he takes you by force, it will be war. The city will burn.”
“So what in the hell are we supposed to do?”
“Get Blackwater out of the picture.”
Zoey’s mother said, “I could get behind that! Can you fire him, Z?”
That clearly wasn’t what Chobb had in mind.
He said, “I did not bring you here to ask you to”—he shot a sidelong glance at Zoey’s mothe
r—“terminate him. But if you agree to that course of action, I can, uh, deliver that news myself. Since he’s coming to retrieve you, that puts you in a unique situation to assist me with that.”
“So you want me to help you get him to lower his guard, so that you can conduct his … firing, here?”
Zoey’s mother said, “Guys, I’m not stupid.”
“That’s why I brought you here in advance. To get you on board with this, the only path to peace. I was hoping your mother would help me convince you.”
“No,” Zoey said. “I won’t help you kill Will Blackwater.”
“Is his hold over you that strong? Do you really think if the roles were reversed, that he’d make the same choice, if he had a clear opportunity to do away with you and take that seat at the head of the table? Don’t project your own softhearted nature onto others, Zoey. It will get you killed. And don’t for one second assume you know how a man like Will Blackwater thinks.”
“And don’t assume you know how a woman like me thinks. I said no, I meant it.”
“Then it will be war.”
“You don’t want that. Think of Marti. Think of the danger that would put him in.”
“That’s not a factor,” Chobb said, slicing off a piece of meat. He’d almost finished it. “One thing that recent events have taught me is that Marti will not be the one to inherit my empire. He should not have told you our family’s private business. That made him a target and it’s made me a target. He didn’t have the stomach for this conflict any more than you do.”
Zoey’s mother said to him, “That’s a good thing! For both of them!”
Titus scoffed.
Zoey said, “Well, I hope you didn’t punish him for doing it. He was just trying to set things right.”
“Punish him? Punishment would imply I still believed he could be corrected. He’s not made of the right stuff and that’s that. Do you know what it’s like to invest seventeen years into offspring, nurturing them, passing on your wisdom, only to see all of your efforts die on the vine?”
“Well, I have a cat that won’t do anything I say.”
